"Last night the wind opened the dew well peach, and the moon wheel in the front hall of Weiyang was high. Pingyang song and dance new favor, outside the curtain spring cold to give the brocade robe. This poem was written by the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Changling, and it refers to Wei Zifu, the second empress of Emperor Wu of Han, who is known in history as "Empress Xiaowuwei".
She was born a commoner and did not have any prominent family, but she could become a generation of sages and be praised by posterity. Not only that, she is also the first empress in Chinese history to have a nickname, and this article will reveal the tragic history from Wei Zifu's nickname.
From the perspective of the male superiority and female inferiority of the Han Dynasty, it is difficult to see how difficult it is for the Wei Zifu to come
After the death of the courtiers, the people of later generations will give him a title in order to evaluate the character, merits, and right and wrong of this person, "The courtiers, do not respect and be humble, show virtue." ”
The length of such titles varies and generally depends on the individual's circumstances. And there are many types, generally divided into "upper", "lower", "flat", "private".
It is generally believed that the system of posthumous titles is thought to have originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty, because it was first published in the Yi Zhou Shu Shu . There is a reference to the "Zhou Gong System" in the Interpretation of the Law of Zhou, and this "Duke of Zhou" was the younger brother of Ji Fa, the King of Zhou Wu, a native of the Western Zhou Dynasty, so the system of titles is believed to have arisen during the Western Zhou Dynasty.
After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, he believed that "the father is judged by the son, and the king is discussed by the subject." "It is contrary to human morality and contrary to the principles of kings and subjects." Therefore, this system was abolished.
Later, after the fall of the Qin Dynasty and the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, the rulers restored this system and quickly flourished, and during the Two Han Dynasties, the general emperors, concubines and important ministers had nicknames.
However, in the early Han Dynasty, due to the influence of the idea of male superiority and female inferiority, it was difficult for women to obtain the title.
Confucius once said, "Only women and villains are difficult to raise." It can be seen that the status of women in the pre-Qin period was low, Confucianism was further developed during the Han Dynasty, and the status of women began to decline.
Wei Zifu was the first empress in history to receive a title, but it was not evaluated after her death, but after some twists and turns, until his great-grandson Emperor Xuan of Han posthumously posthumously became Empress Si, although Wei Zifu had already obtained a title, but in the Western Han Dynasty, there was no custom, resulting in some empresses having titles, and some not.
It was not until the death of Empress Yin Lihua of the Guangwu Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty that her son posthumously honored her as "Empress Guanglie", and the empress dowager became customized.
Why did Emperor Xuan of Han make his great-grandmother Wei Zifu "Empress Si"?
Putting the story on Wei Zifu's nickname again, everyone will find a problem, Emperor Xuan of Han set the nickname "Si" for Wei Zifu, which also has a certain deep meaning.
In ancient times, when evaluating women, morality was mainly used as the evaluation criterion, and words like "wu" hardly became the title of concubines, generally speaking, it was usually words such as "gong", "filial piety" and "virtue".
The word "si" is somewhat troublesome to interpret, in the "History of Justice? It is recorded in the Commentary on the Falun Gong as follows: Moral Purity One Thought, Great Province Zhaomin Thought, Outer and Inner Thought, Regret Before Repentance; The Queen's Chronicle is specifically explained as: "Plotting is not worrying about thinking." Su Xun of the Song Dynasty was doing the "Falun Gong": the plan is not to think with the thoughts, and the thoughts are like the beginnings.
It can be said that taking "thinking" as a nickname does not have a particularly good meaning, and it feels like there is a sense of "mourning its misfortune and angering it."
If it is difficult to understand, in fact, combined with the son of Wei Zifu, the grandfather of Emperor Xuan of Han, Liu Zhao's nickname, there should be a better comparison, after Emperor Xuan of Han ascended the throne, he also gave Liu Zhao the title of "戾", from this word, it can also be seen that it is not a very good nickname, about "戾", explained in the fa: "Do not regret before passing the Yue; do not think of obeying the Yue; know not to change the Yue. ”
That is to say, what Emperor Xuan of Han meant was that Liu Zhao had done something wrong in the midst of the scourge of the witches, after all, it was not a good thing to rebel.
Emperor Xuan of Han also suffered a lot of hardships in his childhood because of the scourge of witchcraft, so after he ascended the throne, he had a certain complaint about his grandfather and great-grandmother.
In the following, we will talk about Wei Zifu's life experience in detail, and then look at whether this "thinking" evaluation of Emperor Xuan of Han is accurate!
What kind of ability does Wei Zifu, who became an empress from a singer, have?
Presumably, everyone knows that Wei Zifu was born very lowly, his mother was a servant in the Princess Pingyang Palace, she learned song and dance when she was young, and later became a singer in the Princess House. Because of her beautiful appearance and cleverness, she is also very popular in the house.
Princess Pingyang was the sister of Emperor Wu of Han, and although emperor Wu of Han, who was eighteen years old at the time, had been married, but had no heirs, Princess Pingyang selected some girls to dedicate to Emperor Wu of Han, one was to open branches and leaves for the royal family, and to extend the heirs; the other was to curry favor with Emperor Wu of Han to ensure her glory and wealth.
But Emperor Wu of Han's vision was also quite high, and he didn't look at any of the girls selected by Princess Pingyang for him. In order to ease this awkward atmosphere, Princess Pingyang immediately ordered people to play songs and dances. And Wei Zifu is also in the song and dance team. Because of her graceful posture and soft singing, she immediately attracted the attention of Emperor Wu of Han.
How could Emperor Wudi of Han's mind conceal his sister Princess Pingyang, when Emperor Wudi of Han got up to change his clothes, Wei Zifu was sent to serve Emperor Wudi of Han, and Emperor Wudi of Han was not too simple, so he spoiled Wei Zifu in the changing room. After that, he took Wei Zifu back to the palace and gave the Princess of Pingyang the Golden Thousand Two as a reward.
However, after Wei Zifu entered the palace, Emperor Wudi of Han was fascinated by the beauties in the palace, and had long forgotten about this little singer. Wei Zifu stayed in the palace for a year, and he didn't even see emperor Wu of Han again.
A year later, Emperor Wu of Han dismissed the old palace girl, and Wei Zifu also took this opportunity to see the emperor again, and she cried and begged Emperor Wu of Han to let her go out of the palace and go home to reunite with her relatives. As soon as the beauty cried, it could be said that the pear blossoms brought rain, and she was not shy, and Emperor Wu of Han felt pity in his heart, so he once again spoiled her.
It was this time that Wei Zifu had the opportunity to turn over, and she was pregnant. Emperor Wu of Han did not have many heirs at this time, so he also attached more and more importance to Wei Zifu, and his honor was very long.
"Wood shows in the forest, and the wind will destroy it." Wei Zifu was so favored, and he had heirs, which also caused the queen's dissatisfaction and jealousy. This empress was the "Ajiao" in the allusion of "Golden House Hidden Jiao", Chen Ajiao was originally the daughter of Empress Dowager Dou's eldest princess Liu Yan, and also the cousin of Emperor Wu of Han, when Emperor Wu of Han was young, Emperor Wu of Han said that if he could marry Ah Jiao as a wife, he would build a golden house for her to live in.
Liu Yan was very happy after hearing this, and with the help of Liu Yan, Emperor Wu of Han was made crown prince, and after Emperor Wu of Han ascended the throne, he made Chen Ajiao empress.
However, After entering the palace for many years and having no heirs, She was very jealous of Wei Zifu.
She spent a lot of money to ask for a son, so she used witchcraft to invite favors, and after emperor Wu of Han knew about it, she deposed Ah Jiao's empress and imprisoned her in a palace on a remote outskirts.
And Wei Zifu became the new empress because she gave birth to a prince and her mother was a son.
The Wei Zifu family made a significant contribution to the Han Dynasty, why was they forced to hang themselves
In the political ecology of the Han Dynasty, the monopoly of power by foreign relatives was a frequent thing, and Wei Zifu was no exception, his younger brother Wei Qing and nephew Huo Fuyi were all important subjects in the dprk, and unlike those foreign relatives who plagued the government, Wei Qing and Huo Fuyi were both outstanding military generals of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty against the Xiongnu, and defeated the Xiongnu many times.
Wei Zifu first gave birth to an heir for Emperor Wu of Han, and his family made a significant contribution to the country, which can be described as a great contribution, in the thirty-eight years of being an empress, the inner palace was managed in an orderly manner, and the concubines also lived in peace, and there was no palace fight. Even Sima Qian, the author of the "Records of History", praised Wei Zifu and praised his virtuousness and quality.
However, Wei Zifu's later years still did not have a good end, which had a huge relationship with the changes in the thinking of Emperor Wu of Han in his later years.
In the pen of later historians, people have pushed the mastermind of the scourge of witchcraft to Jiang Chong, a cool official favored by Emperor Wu of Han, and I think this is not something that Jiang Chong can do alone.
Ban Gu said in the "Biography of the Five Sons of Wu of the Book of Han": "The scourge of the witches, is it not mournful!" This is not the only one that is filled with the river, but also has a time of day, not caused by human beings. "The emperors of ancient times were all heavenly sons, and although Ban Gu said that it was not caused by human power, he simply said that it was Emperor Wu of Han who did it."
In his later years, Emperor Wudi of Han favored Lady Hook Yi, especially Lady Hook Yi and his son Liu Fuling, however, it was very difficult to abolish Chang Liyou during the Han Dynasty, and when Wei Qing and Huo Wentong were alive, Emperor Wu of Han definitely did not have such a plan.
However, Wei Qing and Huo Fu died one after another, giving Emperor Wu of Han the opportunity to depose Liu Zhi and make Liu Fuling crown prince.
At the beginning of the curse of the witches, the spearhead was directed at Wei Zifu, first of all, Wei Zifu's sister Wei Junru's family was exterminated, and Wei Junru's husband Gongsun He was the head of the dynasty and an important pillar of the Wei family in the dynasty, and this case also implicated many people in the Wei family.
In the end, Jiang Chong framed the crown prince Liu Zhao, Liu Zhao was forced to rebel, and after failing to commit suicide, Emperor Wu of Han took back Wei Zifu's empress dowager, although he had not yet issued an edict to abolish the empress, but it was also clear that Wei Zifu then hanged himself and died.
In fact, we can also see that Emperor Wu of Han also had some guilt for the Wei Zifu family, and also established a "si womb" for the crown prince Liu Zhao.
In fact, the person who really should think is not Wei Zifu, but Emperor Wu of Han.
Emperor Xuan of Han was already the surviving grandson of Liu Zhao in the scourge of the Witches, and in his early years he had been exiled to the people, and the throne he inherited should come from Emperor Wu of Han, so after Liu Yi ascended the throne, in order to publicize the legitimacy of his ascension to the throne, he highly admired the merits of Emperor Wu of Han and established a temple for Emperor Wu of Han.
Therefore, even if he had deep sympathy for his grandfather and great-grandmother, he could not overly publicize it, and setting Wei Zifu's nickname as "Si" and Liu Zhao's nickname as "戾" was actually a disguised accusation against Emperor Wu of Han. The ancients often said: "The Son is filial piety, but the Father is not aware." That's what it means!